Hi Enche, I'm not that surprised then, as retail sales are down throughout. Amazon actually posted its best ever year last year, although the big question of coruse is what's going to happen this year...

Hi Enche, I'm not that surprised then, as retail sales are down throughout. Amazon actually posted its best ever year last year, although the big question of coruse is what's going to happen this year...

I suspect rapid sales decline, well certainly in photographic products anyway, although i wish so much that manufacteurs would put the price down on their product, that little bit, so that people 'on the fence' would just get off it! Also i believe in enthusiast and ameteur terms, photographers are 'holding back' on buying kit, because they know, if they wait, they can get it for a cheaper price, in some cases hundreds off the current price! I am certainly following this principle, and am sure others here on the forum, are too!

I suspect rapid sales decline, well certainly in photographic products anyway, although i wish so much that manufacteurs would put the price down on their product, that little bit, so that people 'on the fence' would just get off it! Also i believe in enthusiast and ameteur terms, photographers are 'holding back' on buying kit, because they know, if they wait, they can get it for a cheaper price, in some cases hundreds off the current price! I am certainly following this principle, and am sure others here on the forum, are too!

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for prices to fall, at least not here in the UK.

Unless you're lucky, most of the stock you'll find on the shelves has been bought-in and paid for recently, since the dramatic fall of Sterling.

If the dealers have had to open a vein to pay for it, there's no chance of them offering it for sale at anything less than top dollar. Those that bought before the demise of Sterling are going to want to maximise their investment to cover escalating costs. It's a lose - lose situation for the consumer.

Here at home (UK) we can expect to see taxes and interest rates rising very steeply over the next few years. If, (and that's a big 'if') the economy eventually stabilises, don't expect to see the prices of so-called 'luxury goods' falling, they wont. Don't expect to see taxes falling back either.

If the doom and gloom merchants are to be believed, people are going to be selling, or eating, their own children here during the next five years. I don't think it will be quite that bad, but it will be bad.

That said, there's going to be a lot of bargains out there on second hand kit.

But, if you've got the money now, you want new stuff and you can afford to do it, buy now.

We also have to look at the global picture. How well the UK is doing in isolation isn't the sole factor. It's how the UK does relative to Japan that is most significant I think. Their exporters must be hurting badly from the strong yen, and I think the price pressure will ease off a bit when they get dragged down as we creep towards recovery.

We also have to look at the global picture. How well the UK is doing in isolation isn't the sole factor. It's how the UK does relative to Japan that is most significant I think. Their exporters must be hurting badly from the strong yen, and I think the price pressure will ease off a bit when they get dragged down as we creep towards recovery.

I hope you're right but remember, Japan's economy started to go pear-shaped back in the late 1990s and they've been in the doldrums ever since, despite the boom years elsewhere. They still have a strong manufacturing base, whereas we manufacture relatively little by comparison, (Social Workers and Diversity Enforcement Officers don't count)

Whichever way the mop flops, it's going to take a long, long time before our spending power recovers to to anything like that which we enjoyed in recent years.

On that cheery little note I'm off to drown some kittens before I offski to bed.